Volume 19 Chapter 198 The Terrifying Sea of Silence
To be honest, I don't know whether this last insurance succeeded or failed, but Persephone is very optimistic. After all, she is the goddess of spring, and her cheerful personality is her specialty.
After Persephone's explanation, Hades regained some confidence, so we had to wait for another hour. There is no way. The explosion in that minute did indeed reduce the magic that caused the magic circle to collapse, but the problem is that the proportion of the decrease in one minute is less than one-third, and this speed is still very fast. It's nothing to explode for an hour or a minute like now, but once Hades decides to join our Frost Rose Alliance, without the suppression of Zeus, this magic circle will operate at full power. By that time, the two-thirds of the collapse speed will definitely kill people, so we must figure out whether this collapse circle can only reduce one-third of the collapse speed, or whether it is not fully effective because the startup time was too short. .
After waiting anxiously for another hour, the collapse magic circle was activated again on time, but this time we discovered the problem as soon as the magic circle started. Different from the magical energy that burst out from ordinary cover when it was activated last time, the energy that exploded after the collapse magic circle was activated this time was obviously much lower. If the last energy explosion was like a tsunami, then this one is at most like a rushing river. Although the power is still not small, it has obviously dropped significantly.
With the experience last time, Hades was not in a hurry to ask this time. He just quietly sensed the speed of Persephone's magic power dissipating. The initial burst of magic power followed the passage of time within a minute. It was decreasing rapidly at a speed that we could clearly sense. When the collapse array went to sleep again a minute later, the energy collapse speed had dropped to a little more than one-third of the normal value.
"How do you feel?" Although he could also sense energy fluctuations, Hades immediately asked Persephone how she felt. After all, the collapsing circle was imprinted on her body, and she knew best what it felt like. .
Compared with last time, Persephone was obviously more excited this time. She hugged Hades excitedly and shouted: "It's falling, it's falling, it's really falling. At this speed, even if the disintegration circle is activated throughout the day, At best I can’t use any magic, at least my life won’t be a problem.”
Hades felt a lot relieved when he heard Persephone's personal confirmation, and I added in a timely manner: "The suppressing power of this suppressing magic circle is to absorb the magic power of the collapsing magic circle and in turn suppress the collapsing magic." Formation, so it needs the magic power of the broken magic circle to activate its own suppression power. I estimate that it still cannot achieve complete suppression these two times because the magic power has not been fully charged. If it is activated once or twice more, there may not be any magic power. It's leaked."
After hearing my explanation, Hades's face finally returned to normal. In fact, Hades's character is relatively calm and peaceful. The reason why he had a bad temper before was because he cared too much about Persephone, so he would be particularly nervous about things related to Persephone. This is called caring and causing chaos. Now it has been confirmed that this magic circle can ensure the safety of Persephone's life. Although there are still some side effects for the time being, according to me, they can be eliminated quickly, so Hades's mood is much better.
Because we still need to confirm whether this thing can really completely eliminate the impact of the Collapse Magic Circle, we waited in this room for several hours and experienced the startup and shutdown of the Collapse Magic Circle several times to test the effect. It turns out that my previous guess was completely correct. When the disintegration circle was activated for the third time, the speed of energy dissipation had been reduced to a negligible state. Although there was still magic dissipation, as long as Persephone did not use magic frequently, she could occasionally drink a few bottles of magic recovery potion. ' agent to offset this consumption, and after the fourth activation of the collapsing magic circle, this consumption was directly reduced to a state where it was almost completely gone. Even Persephone's own magic recovery speed was faster than this consumption. Much faster. In other words, even if the current energy dispersion circle is activated 24 hours a day, it will not have any impact on Persephone.
After testing all the properties of this thing, although Persephone was very happy, she said with a little regret: "Unfortunately, this thing is too big, and it is very uncomfortable to carry it close to the body. And what should I do when taking a shower?" What to do? Do you have a solution?"
Hades, who was originally very happy, nodded and said, "Yes, Persephone can't always carry this thing with her, right?"
I was already prepared for their question. After all, this thing was designed by our guild, and the researchers were all aware of its flaws.
"We have known about the shortcomings of this thing for a long time, but I was impatient, so I took a sample first to see if it can be used. The one you are wearing is actually just an experimental product that we temporarily assembled in the laboratory. After confirming After the method is effective, we will help you design a similar device. The size will definitely be smaller than this one, but after all, it has to cover the entire magic circle, so it cannot be too small, but the weight will definitely drop a lot, and it will also This kind of belt-type structure is not necessarily needed. In the past, the experimental model was too heavy, so we designed it as a belt-type structure. The official model is smaller and much lighter. It can be directly fixed on clothes, so it will be comfortable. A lot. As for the issue you said about not being able to leave, we have also thought about it.
We plan to build an enhanced energy room in Isengard, and then fill this room with high-concentration energy. Just like the device on your back, we use the pressure generated by the high-concentration magic field from the outside to cause the collapsing magic circle on your body. The energy cannot be dissipated externally. In this case, you don't need to bring this device as long as you don't leave the room. In the future, if it is inconvenient to bring this device when you need to take a bath, you can enter the room to do it. Although it is still a bit troublesome, the impact will not be great. In addition, I have said before that this is only a temporary solution. We are only using it to temporarily suppress the collapse array. We will continue to study the cracking method in the future. There is only so much in this magic circle, and we will be able to analyze it sooner or later. Maybe we will have cracked it before it is fully activated. "
After hearing such a detailed plan, Hades and the others have nothing to complain about. After all, I said this is a makeshift method, and for the gods with unlimited life, as long as this thing is not forever unavailable, it doesn't matter. Problem, anyway, they have plenty of time and can wait for us to work out a solution.
After solving the shackles of Persephone that bound Hades, there was no need for Hades to stay in the Olympus Protoss, but it was obviously inappropriate to run away with people immediately.
My ultimate goal is to bring all the Hades of the Olympus Protoss to the Frost Rose Alliance, but if Hades leads a massive rebellion now, the final result will definitely be The old bastard Zeus was provoked, and it would be inevitable to have a battle with the gods represented by Zeus and the Poseidon headed by Poseidon. Although we are not afraid of fighting, it refers to a frontal attack. We do not want to be attacked during the migration process. The loss ratio of that frontal battle is completely incomparable. Besides, fighting has to have a purpose, right? Going to fight with someone for no good reason is something you can only do if your head is kicked by a donkey.
"Then, let's finalize the merger plan first. As for the collective transfer work, I'm afraid we have to remember this for a long time." Hades said to me.
I thought for a while and said: "Well, you guys, make preparations first. Don't rush to announce the matter, so as not to be discovered by that old guy Zeus in advance. As for the specific method of transferring the team, I'd better go back and discuss it with the people in the meeting. Anyway, Pandora and Rhadamantis are at my place, I can ask them about the formal issues here, and I will inform you when we have planned the transfer plan. What do you think?"
Of course Hades nodded in agreement with my proposal. If I asked them to transfer directly now, he might worry that he was with the wrong person. But now that I have the idea of making a decision before making a move, he will I feel more at ease. At least this proves that I have no intention of treating them as cannon fodder.
After leaving the Hades side of Hades, I did not go to the human world. Instead, I was personally escorted by Minos and Aeacus to the Sea of Silence. The main reason for leaving here is that there are no people from Zeus to monitor here. After all, this is the underworld, and the Sea of Silence is a negative energy substance. Let alone the guys from the God system, even if they get too close, their strength will be reduced or even... Coma or even death.
Originally, according to Hades's intention, he planned to let Charon, the ferryman of the Styx, take me back. However, considering the speed of Charon's broken ship, I finally rejected his good intention and let Black Flame take me away from here.
As a native creature of the Sea of Silence, the black flames here are like fish returning to the sea. If nothing else, at least they are much faster than Caron's boat. Of course, I didn’t plan to let Black Flame take me back to Isengard. After all, we were one-third of the world away. Even if Black Flame was faster, it would still take a few days to swim, right? So our route was planned like this. First, Black Flame took me to swim from Hades to Anubis. The territories of these two Hades are relatively close to each other, and they are related to me, so it is easier to travel between them. After I get to Anubis, I don't have to be afraid of Zeus at all. At that time, I can completely change the teleportation array or fly the bird directly back to Isengard. Anyway, it's much faster to go back than to swim back in the black flame.
Although the Sea of Silence is called the Sea of Silence, it is actually anything but silent. The sea level is very quiet, because there are no influences such as wind, ocean currents, and the gravity of the moon, so the Sea of Silence has no waves at all. However, although the sea itself is silent, it is very lively below the sea level. All kinds of terrifying negative energy monsters are everywhere here like weeds.
I sat on Hei Yan's head and walked in the Sea of Silence for less than twenty minutes when I noticed a huge and ugly head suddenly rising up in front of me on the left. The other person turned to look at us behind the sea of floating books. After Yan's head was bigger than it, he slowly dived into the water and disappeared. After that, we encountered a monster almost every ten minutes on average. During this period, I even saw an unknown monster that I don’t know whether to say it looked like a bumblebee or a manta ray. This thing looks like a hybrid between a manta ray and a bumblebee. Not only can it move at high speed underwater, it can also fly.
This strange creature is obviously a social creature. As soon as it appears, it forms a large group, numbering tens of thousands, almost covering the entire nearby sea surface. However, although there are a lot of them, Heiyan completely ignores these small things, after all, the size is there. If Heiyan's body was not deliberately reduced with magic, it would be at least more than five kilometers long. The thickest part of the body can be as wide as a ten-lane road, which is big enough to play basketball on. As for the size of these little guys, they are probably about the same size as a medium-sized pig, and they are not as fat as pigs, so they may look smaller than pigs. With their size, they are like flies next to an elephant next to Hei Yan. This gap is really too big, so even though there are a lot of them, Hei Yan doesn't take these things at all. Take it seriously.
At first we thought that these little things were just passing by us like other passing creatures, but just when this group of little things were about to separate from us, a large group of creatures suddenly appeared behind them. These creatures are not as strange as the previous wasp-like or manta ray-like creatures. Their shapes are very standard fish, and there is nothing special about them except that they are uglier. Of course, these guys are also larger than the previous little monsters. They are generally more than three meters in length, and some of the larger ones can grow to about five meters, but they are still small compared to Black Flame.
The number of these fish is obviously much less than the number of the previous kind of things. It seems that the total number should only be a few hundred. Compared with the number of the previous kind of monsters, it is only a few percent. However, the current situation is that the group of fish in the back is chasing the group of little monsters in front, and it seems that the fish in the back are the natural enemies of the little monster in front.
Although that kind of little monster can fly, it can't fly very high. It can only fly up to a height of more than ten meters above the sea surface. Although the fish below can't fly, they can jump. With their astonishing high speed and exaggerated jumping ability, these guys can easily jump to a height of twenty meters, and judging from their appearance, this is not the limit, but because their prey can basically only fly more than ten meters, so they They are too lazy to jump to a higher place. If those little monsters fly higher, these strange fish will definitely be able to jump higher.
However, although the jumping ability of these strange fish is very good, their accuracy is slightly poor. Those little monsters probably evolved their back eyes in the long-term competition for survival. The result is that as soon as the strange fish below jumps out of the water, they immediately change their flight direction, and those strange fish can only control the direction of their bodies in a small range in the air, so Most of the time, the monster fish has to jump dozens or even hundreds of times to catch a small monster. Fortunately, the little monsters are not too small compared to their size, so as long as a strange fish catches one little monster, it will be enough for it to eat.
Originally, the relationship between hunting and being hunted between these two species has nothing to do with me. What a shame, those strange fish started biting crazily after catching the little monster, and as a result, blood and water splashed everywhere. .
Just like the presence of a large amount of blood in the ocean in the human world will attract sharks, the smell of blood in the Sea of Silence will also attract some very ferocious guys, and these guys are definitely much more dangerous than sharks.
After watching two groups of fish chasing each other and passing us, an obvious white track suddenly appeared behind us on the left, and as we got closer, we could even see the track. The water surface around the trace obviously bulged out a large piece.
Originally, there were so many monsters appearing around Black Flame, but Hei Yan looked like he didn't see them, because he was a native creature of the Sea of Silence, and he knew the monsters here relatively well. He knew that those creatures would not attack him, so he did not waste his experience paying attention to those guys. However, this time Black Flame's instinct told him that he must be careful with this thing coming, so Black Flame suddenly stopped after the thing appeared. He stood down and pointed his head in the direction where the guy came from, and at the same time notified me to fly up first.
Flying is not completely impossible on the Sea of Silence, but firstly, the span here is too large, and most creatures cannot persist in flying here for a long time. Secondly, there are no north and south magnetic poles here, unless the native creatures of the Sea of Silence and outsiders If you go in ten times, you will get lost ten times. Flying creatures will lose their way after entering, so unless you are very lucky, you have to be prepared to run out of energy and fall into the sea. In addition, there is a rather perverted setting here, that is, there is a layer of something similar to a gravity field above the Sea of Silence, and the higher it is from the sea, the stronger it is, so you'd better not fly too high here, otherwise you will bear The downward pulling force will become stronger and stronger. Of course, even if you fly completely close to the sea, it doesn't mean that you don't have to bear this extra pressure. In addition to your own weight, the gravity within five meters of the sea level is basically twice the normal value, and between five and ten meters Generally, the gravity is three times higher than normal, and the gravity doubles every five meters upwards. Therefore, flying too high here is purely to make yourself unhappy.
After receiving the reminder from Heiyan, I immediately spread my wings and flew to a height of seven or eight meters above the sea. The reason why I did not fly to a height of ten meters was because the gravity distribution mentioned before was actually a gradual change rather than a sudden change, that is, It is said that the magnitude of gravity gradually changes as altitude increases. The range of five meters mentioned before is just for specific quantification. It does not mean that when you fly to a height of ten meters, the gravity will triple. If you fly one centimeter higher, the gravity will increase instantly. To four times that is simply impossible.
As soon as I started flying, Hei Yan immediately sank his head to be level with the sea surface. From above, only his flat head could be seen still above the water, while the rest of his body had sunk under the water. . However, because the sea water in the Sea of Silence is as black as ink, the situation in the human world where you can see dark shadows under the water through the sea water is completely unthinkable.
Almost as soon as we were ready, the flight path over there suddenly began to accelerate, and then about three or four hundred meters away from us, the water surface suddenly exploded, and then we saw a long and somewhat long one. A huge creature that looked like a crocodile but looked much more ferocious suddenly jumped out of the water. However, just when this guy jumped out of the water and jumped forward less than fifty meters, the water under me exploded instantly, and then I saw Hei Yan's huge body jumping out from under the water. He crossed a distance of several hundred meters and bit into his mouth the guy who was still in the air but had not yet returned to the water.
Although this mutant crocodile-like monster is very large, it is relatively small compared to a normal creature. Compared with Black Flame, it can only be considered small. The width of Black Flame's head is almost equivalent to the width of a ten-lane super highway, and the length of the monster including head and tail is the width of twenty lanes, which means that the overall length of the thing is only two times the width of Black Flame. It's only twice that, looking at the black flame biting the middle part of the guy's body, it's like an ordinary python biting a big carp horizontally in its mouth.
When I first saw Hei Yan bite this guy, I thought Hei Yan was making a fuss. After all, it was a bit exaggerated for him to be so nervous about something that he could bite in one bite. However, just when I was about to fly over and join Black Flame, another one of those things suddenly flew out from under the sea.
The monster flying this time was slightly smaller than the one just now, but it was really just a little smaller. The front one bitten by black flames is about seventy meters long. Although the back one is smaller, it is at least sixty meters long. In reality, this length can definitely be regarded as a standard behemoth. .
The monster that flew up later hit Hei Yan in the air, and then saw it open its mouth and bite Hei Yan's neck. With a clicking sound, Hei Yan's extremely defensive scales were bitten through in an instant, and then several thin streams of blood were seen flowing out of Hei Yan's body. Of course, to Heiyan, this amount of blood is similar to a drop of blood when a person pricks his finger with a needle, but being able to break Heiyan's defense at least shows that these guys' teeth are quite powerful.
Before the monster biting Hei Yan let go, a large group of monsters jumped out of the water one after another. Then, like a pack of wolves attacking prey, these monsters jumped up one after another and bit Hei Yan one after another. In the blink of an eye, Hei Yan was bitten and bruised all over his body. Although the actual damage value was not high, it looked really scary.
When I saw the black flames, hundreds of these things were crawling all over my body. I quickly flew over to help, but I didn't expect that before I went over to find trouble for those things, they targeted me first. . Just when I lowered my height and prepared to strike, a monster suddenly jumped up from the water, opened its mouth and bit me. Because I didn't expect that the other party would take the initiative to attack, and the distance was really too close, I almost didn't react and was swallowed whole.
The monster immediately fell back into the water after swallowing me, but before he could turn around to attack Black Flame, a huge pain instantly made it lose its ability to move and twist violently on the spot. The monster struggled in place for less than two seconds, and its belly began to expand like a balloon. Then dozens of red sword lights flashed around the monster, and then the strange fish exploded into a pile in an instant. Minced meat, and I rushed straight out of the monster's belly.
"You idiot who is not afraid of death. You dare to swallow me. Do you think your stomach is made of diamonds?"
As soon as I finished cursing, the monsters around me completely entered a violent state. Not because of my curse, not because I killed their companions, but because of the blood of their own kind. Yes, it's because of the blood. These monsters did not attack me immediately after I exploded the monster. Instead, they scrambled to eat all the body parts of my companions before they started to attack me.
After looking around, I honestly floated out of the water and flew into the air. Fighting with these aquatic creatures in the water would obviously be a disadvantage for me, not to mention that this was not ordinary water, but a sea of silence. Among my demon pets, apart from Black Flame, only Sayako and the King seem to be able to soak in the Sea of Silence. Other demon pets touching this water are basically the same as ordinary creatures being sprayed with sulfuric acid. Although it cannot be said that it can kill them instantly, But the result is definitely not much better, so I can only choose to fly into the air. At least some flying magic pets can help. But now everything depends on Black Flame's performance. If Black Flame can take care of these things, I just need to be able to protect myself. If Black Flame cannot defeat these monsters, then I will have no choice but to activate the Divine Realm Fusion and run away. Of course, I will definitely be able to kill these creatures after the body is harmonized, but those things have very high experience value and cannot explode high-level equipment. I am out of my mind and risking my life with them? But don’t forget that this is not a safe zone, but the Sea of Silence known as the Sea of Death. There are sequelae of merging in the divine realm. I have no problem fighting them, but what if I encounter another monster once the merging time is over? So if you really need to be harmonious, you can only choose to run away.
When I started flying again, the monsters below began to jump up one after another, trying to drag me back into the sea. However, I did not fly high, so I just stopped at their jumping limit to seduce these guys to jump up. As long as I As soon as they jumped up, I immediately hit them back with a burst of fireball. Later, I felt that I was slower on my own, so I simply summoned Ling, Xiaochun, and Lucky to help me smash it together. Anyway, I just had to control the height and not be touched by the sea water below. However, I am the only one who can play this dangerous game, because our Frost Rose Alliance itself is protected by the divine power of the Temple of Chaos and Order, so it is generally not easy to be restrained by certain things. The influence of the sea water of the Sea of Silence on us Less than others. In addition, I can enter the Sea of Silence myself, so my familiars have inherited a little bit of resistance. Although they cannot be unscathed from contact with the sea like me, at least they will not be like me. Ordinary creatures can't even get close, so they can still fight even if they only stop at a height of 20 or 30 meters from the sea. They just have to be careful not to get into the seawater carried up by those monsters, otherwise it will be miserable. , this sea water will definitely make a hole when it touches them.
Because the fish-catching action on our side attracted the attention of many monsters, the pressure on Heiyan's side was much lighter, but compared to us, he was still the most tired. After all, this is his home field. He is also the main attacker, so it is impossible not to work hard.
It may be said that those monsters would bite holes in Heiyan's body every time, but the damage they actually caused to Heiyan was like a person being attacked by a group of large ants. Although every bite will hurt and bleed, to really do anything to this person, the number of ants must reach a certain level. There are indeed a lot of these monsters, but they are not as basic as ants, so even though they bite Heiyan all over his body, they actually only make Heiyan more violent.
We were trying our best to attract the attention of the monsters. Suddenly, the sea water next to us suddenly exploded into a large ditch, and then we saw more than a dozen monsters being thrown up along with the sea water. If it weren't for the fact that the sea water was inaccessible, as long as they rushed forward one by one, they would definitely kill the monsters flying in the air. Unfortunately, those monsters were surrounded by sea water, so they didn't dare to go over. There was no choice but to watch the monsters fall back into the sea.
Ling looked at this situation and reminded me: "How about letting the black flames knock those guys flying, and then we use magic crystal steam missiles? That shouldn't be a big problem in hitting these monsters, right?"
I thought about it and thought it made sense, so I used telepathic contact to tell Hei Yan to fight off those monsters as much as possible like before. After receiving the order, Hei Yan immediately swept his tail under the water, and then the sea water burst into a large ditch again. Following us, we saw a dozen monsters somersaulting and flying high into the sky.
"Mobile Angel." As I shouted, two air combat type Mobile Angels suddenly appeared next to me, and then I heard just a whizzing sound... a sound of breaking through the air, and more than a dozen missiles roared out, each missile targeting A monster was about to hit him. And then……
Then it was all white, and then I felt a huge pain all over my body. After about ten seconds, I gradually began to recover all kinds of nerve sensations. First, I found myself floating in the water, and then I realized in my consciousness that Ling and Xiaochun, the demon pets I had just summoned, had all died. , the only one who is still in contact now is Hei Yan, and Hei Yan's spiritual contact has no response, which means that although he is not dead, he must be in a coma.
After shaking my head a little to wake myself up, I felt my body again and found that my limbs could move. Then I dragged my body in great pain and tried to swim upward. It took me a few minutes to get back to the surface and I realized that the situation was much scarier than I had imagined. Hei Yan's huge body was twisted and floating on the water like a dead snake. There were a large number of dead monsters floating in a mess around his body. It looked like they were not killed by the explosion. Yes, he was killed by the shock wave. How powerful is this to kill such a powerful monster under several meters of water? Anyway, I don't think those magic crystal steam missiles just now have such power.
After confirming the situation on the sea surface, I hurriedly swam to Heiyan first. After making sure he was okay, I took him back to the Fenglong space. However, the treatment had to wait for a while, because Xiaochun also died.
Since most of the demon pets were killed, I now had no choice but to drink the recovery potion while flying towards Anubis. After pinching my nose and drinking up a bottle of extremely effective recovery medicine, I felt goosebumps all over my body due to the weird smell. How long has it been since I took medicine by myself? It seems that since Xiaochun became my magic pet, I have said goodbye to these recovery potions completely. Compared with the horrible taste and various restrictions of potions, Xiaochun's healing magic is really fast and good, and most importantly, it doesn't cost any money.
After drinking the medicine, I checked the injuries on my body again. After confirming that it was nothing serious, I started to think about the situation just now. However, when I thought about it, I suddenly realized something, so I quickly turned around and flew back.
Of course I didn't want to go back to Hades, but to the battlefield just now. Fortunately, I remembered it in time, otherwise I might not be able to find it if I flew far across the vast sea.
Returning to the sea area where a large number of floating corpses were floating, I quickly used the Phoenix Dragon Space to load all the corpses of the monsters below.
The two air combat mobile Angels previously fired only the smallest magic crystal steam missiles. The power of each missile was at most equivalent to two large magic crystal cannon shells. Even if more than a dozen of them exploded together, they would cause overlapping effects. As a result, it is impossible to kill my magic pet in an instant and kill all the monsters under the sea. You must know that the targets hit by the dozen missiles flew more than 20 meters above the sea, and the straight-line distance between us and those monsters was more than 50 meters. With the power of this miniature magic crystal steam missile, it can only feel a gust of hot wind from such a distance. How could it possibly erupt such an exaggerated shock wave? Therefore, I felt that there must be a reason for this, and the most likely possibility was that there was something special about the monsters that were attacked, so I decided to bring some corpses back to study.
After installing the body, I released Black Flame again, and then started using healing techniques to treat his injuries. Although I have hardly used it, I am an animal trainer after all. A normal beast tamer's fighting method is to let the demon pet rush in front, while he hides behind to refresh the demon pet's status and restore blood. Occasionally, he can also use his wits to throw two curse-type magics or direct attack magic at the opponent. Anyway, people like me are basically the type who don't do their job properly, and regular animal trainers should be full-time wet nurses similar to priests. However, if you are not doing your job properly, you are not doing your job properly. I still know how to heal.
After a lot of effort, we finally woke up Heiyan and cured most of his injuries before we started back on the road. However, this time the speed was much slower. Firstly, Heiyan's wounds were not completely healed, and secondly, he was also injured here. The monster is scared. I didn't feel much when I heard others talking about it before, but now I know why those gods frowned when they mentioned the Sea of Silence. This grandpa's is really too dangerous. Next time I won’t dare to cross the Sea of Silence even if I’m killed.